|
Why do you stress that TOZAI is not
a school?
How can you assure effectiveness?
How are trainee needs determined?
How does your program create efficiency?
What services can TOZAI provide?
Please note, the following answers are standard answers for
TOZAI. We stress that every client has special needs and,
together with the client, we create a program which defines
the policies and procedures.
Why do you stress that TOZAI is not a
school?
TOZAI: TOZAI differentiates
itself from language schools ethically and operationally.
Internationally, private language education
is an unregulated industry, and TOZAI believes the majority
of language schools exploit their students using insufficiently
trained instructors, confused curricula, and inappropriate
materials. So, from an ethical standpoint, TOZAI tries to
differentiate itself from language schools and, moreover,
hopes to promote standards which will improve the industry.
Operationally, TOZAI sees far greater need in administration
than in instruction, particularly in the highly demanding
area of corporate language education. TOZAI creates value
for its clients by helping them to define and administer rational
training programs. Administration includes investigating the
quality of language schools and their instructors, proposing
the best ones to the client, and ensuring that those hired
follow quality standards. The primary benefits are significant
increases in efficiency and effectiveness, with the goal being
what TOZAI calls client enhancement: the development of a
more competitive organization. Following this business model,
TOZAI enjoys fulfilling work, which leads to financial success.
How can you assure effectiveness?
Usual language school case: Having a native speaker instructor
is the main requirement. Experience and teaching licenses
receive premiums. The second way is trusting the language
schools manager. Sometimes, the client will organize external,
standardized testing to check progress.
TOZAI: Quality is the
most important factor in education. We take several steps
to assure quality, which focus on standards and monitoring.
These include the establishing of professional administration
and instruction standards with the clients program, careful
review of potential instructors' qualifications, and proposed
course plans, constant, detailed monitoring of course data,
and clear reporting to the client and its staff.
Besides the quality of instruction, effectiveness can also
take a financial aspect: price performance. This is assured
by
(a) negotiating course instruction fees based not on the instructor’s
regular fee, but on the merit of the their qualifications
and course plan and (b) closely monitoring course progress
to assure that it runs as planned.
How are trainee needs determined?
Usual language school case: Needs are unspecified or determined
by a non-professional’s inspiration
TOZAI: We assess needs
on three levels. 1. The client’s corporate needs (short,
medium, and long term goals) should form the base of the overall
training program. This includes what languages to train, the
pace of training, target trainees, and the training environment.
2. We create job-specific training objectives. Within one
company, different jobs have different objectives and therefore
different needs. An executive, an engineer, and a secretary
all have different, though sometimes overlapping, needs. We
believe job-specific training is a key element of an efficient
and beneficial program. 3. Individual trainees’needs
are identified by comparing their skills against the training
objectives for (1) their job type and (2) considering any
known changes in career path.
How does your program create efficiency?
Usual language school case: Because courses are usually independent
and do not overlap with other courses, there are few efficiencies.
In fact, courses are usually inefficient unnecessarily expensive,
due to the use of untrained instructors. This results in wasted
class hours. The most common type of savings is a reduction
in text costs. By making bulk purchases of texts and other
materials, free shipping and text price discounts are sometimes
given.
TOZAI: The important point
in TOZAI’s system, in terms of efficiency, is its scalability.
This means that a program can be expanded to cover multiple
sites within a company, and this expansion should require
minimal modification of the original program design. The reason
is that a software designer in Company X’s Hiroshima
factory should have basically the same job profile, and therefore
training needs, as the company’s software designer in
Sapporo or even Shanghai. Moreover, these three should be
able to collaborate, which means that they would greatly benefit
from having similar training experiences.
Even at one site of a client’s company, though, efficiencies
can be realized. These can be found through rational scheduling,
class sizes, and resources management. One unique TOZAI advantage
is its consolidated course management system. By collecting
all course data, including attendance, trainee scores, instruction
and materials costs, and providing one customized bill and
detailed report, we save the client’s human resources,
purchasing, and accounting departments’ time.
What services can TOZAI provide?
Usual language school case: Because courses are usually independent
and do not overlap with other courses, there are few efficiencies.
In fact, courses are usually inefficient unnecessarily expensive,
due to the use of untrained instructors. This results in wasted
class hours. The most common type of savings is a reduction
in text costs. By making bulk purchases of texts and other
materials, free shipping and text price discounts are sometimes
given.
TOZAI: Our clients are
all large corporations which tend to have training programs
already in operation. Our services fall into four general
categories, which are planned to improve efficiency and effectiveness
: 1. current program assessment, in order to check the strength
of a client’s existing training program, 2. program
realignment, which is a combined effort with the client to
move an existing program into a fully customized one which
follows a standards-based model, 3. new program introduction
and start up, and 4. ongoing course administration TOZAI recognizes
that each client has individual needs, so our approach is
to listen to these needs, and to propose a development plan
which is the most suitable for the situation.
日本語版 / Japanese
Version
|
